Pact fuels 61-point rise in Sensex

With the Indo-US nuclear deal acting as another booster dose, institutional investors continued to buy on the bourses today with the Sensex breaching yet another landmark during intra-day trading.

After touching a life-time high of 10,706 points, the 30-stock index closed the day at 10,626.78, up 61.31 points or 0.6 per cent over yesterday.

The Nifty closed at 3,150.70, up 27.60 points, or 0.9 per cent, after touching a high of 3,170.35 during the day. Of the Sensex shares, 19 rose and 11 fell.

Telecom shares led index gainers following a Supreme Court ruling that telecom services could not be equated with "goods", and so state governments could not impose sales tax on services provided by telecom firms.

Bharti Tele-Ventures, up over 5 per cent, was the top Nifty gainer. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd ended up 3 per cent and 4 per cent higher, respectively. Index heavyweight ONGC ended 2.4 per cent higher after the government today said the company would invest Rs 1.12 trillion for exploration and production activities in the next five years.

Banking shares also lent support to the indices led by 2 per cent gains each in Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India.

The CNX bank index rose 1.8 per cent to 4,656.35. GAIL (India) ended 2 per cent up as Indian Oil today offloaded half its stake in the company at Rs 275 per share. BPCL, down 2.8 per cent, was the biggest Nifty loser.

Hindustan Petroleum ended, down 1 per cent. The losses are attributed to lack of positive announcements for the sector in the Budget.